The software-defined sea change that has relentlessly redefined the way we think about wired network infrastructures has reached mobile and wireless networks and is fundamentally changing the industry and the research associated with it. This sea change presents tremendous opportunity for research in mobile and wireless networking; never before has there been this “perfect storm” of need/demand for advancing mobile and wireless technologies, applications and services, combined with unprecedented access to enabling technologies through software defined architectures and technologies and open source initiatives. At the same time the same perfect storm presents significant challenges to those seeking to make research contributions in this domain: Industry-driven initiatives, even when “open”, are by design driven by organizations with significant resources, making it difficult to make contributions without being “overrun” by these industry efforts. Further, open source stacks in this domain are sophisticated and quite complex with many possible options and configurations, making it difficult to establish baseline functionality on which to start meaningful research. Finally, while the sea change promises access to the necessary enabling technologies, putting those together in a meaningful manner (e.g., hardware, software, access to spectrum, realistic scenarios etc.), is a daunting task.

This tutorial will introduce attendees to the PAWR POWDER-RENEW platform which provides researchers access to the technologies associated with the software-defined sea change in mobile and wireless research and solve many of the challenges in using/exploiting them. Attendees will be introduced to the capabilities of the PAWR POWDER-RENEW platform through hands-on exploration of selected research topics.

Requirements for tutorial attendees:

This will be a hands-on session where attendees will perform “scripted exploration” of the POWDER platform.Attendees will be required to access POWDER, using their own laptops, through ssh and/or web browser sessions (Chrome works best)

Before the workshop please request a POWDER account here; please do this well in advance of the workshop so that account creation won’t hold up the session.

When creating an account, be sure to load an ssh public-key file as part of your request. Alternatively, you can upload an ssh public key after your account is approved and you are logged into theportal

The fifth generation of cellular wireless standards (colloquially known as 5G) have been in the limelight for the last 3 years, with early deployments happening right now. The wireless communications industry has published a standards roadmap showing most 5G features will be delivered within the next two iterations of standards. Therefore, researchers are now looking ahead to what is now touted as 6G – pointing to novel communication paradigms such as Terahertz and Quantum communications. This talk will attempt to serve as a primer for what has happened thus far, and outline what is likely to come up next, as seen from the vantage point of a science funding agency. The talk will also cover ongoing efforts to invest in the forward-looking research topics that appear promising to the wireless research community.

Today, UAVs are equipped with a host of sensors that aid in navigation, including gyroscopes, lidar, and GPS. UAVs can be further equipped with sensors that can aid in realizing missions such as search and rescue or finding and tracking a mobile target. Such sensors include software defined radios, environmental and gas sensors, and video cameras. In this talk, I will describe how the fusion of advanced capabilities in sensing, communication, and machine learning will enable networks of UAVs to accomplish previously impossible tasks. I will describe the state of the art and research challenges while drawing on recent experiences from experimental systems.

The advent of 5G promises to change our lives in a huge way. This revolution will enable cars to be self-driving, communication networks to be software-defined and autonomous, VR and AR to be mobile and completely untethered, and IoT sensors to be intelligent and connected. Not only will the 5G network transform our lives, the network itself will continue to transform from hardware to software, and from being reactive to proactive. Over the next decade, the industry will launch a new generation of this network – Network AI. This presentation will provide an overview of how AI is creating the 5G world and the role of AI in networking.